Based on true events, this is a film that take places in the 60s in USA and Rusia in the midst of the Cold War. It was marked by the fear of a nuclear attack and role by spies from the both side. There are a lot of films or books that talks about the manoeuvres and risks that spies have to do to make their job, but there are few films that talks about what happened when Americans discover a Russian spy or inside out.
It's during this period when American agents arrested a Russian spy, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance). He has to be tried and the lawyer specialized in insurance James Donovan (Tom Hanks) is conscript by the CIA. The idea was that Abel had a trial, but the sentence was ruled before the trial take place. Even so James Donovan takes seriously his charge and he defends Abel. This makes that everybody go against James Donovan including his family and the CIA. Donovan strongly believes in his principles as a lawyer and as a human and he got that Abel is not condemned to the electric chair.
At the same time, Americans also spied Russians. They had built special planes able to fly and take pics from the long distances without been discovered. But the pilot Francis Powers is hit by a missile when he fly over Soviet territory. The pilot Powers is caught as a Russian prisoner.
The Americans has the fear that the pilot reveal information to the Russians and the same happened with the Russians to Abel. In this point is when the fact that Abel still alive is important to make a swap between countries. For this difficult task, James Donovan is chosen to undertake intensive negotiations between the two parties. What is more, the negotiation takes place in the difficult city of Berlin while the famous wall that separated the city was being built. The situation can't be more difficult but James Donovan accepts in order to do the right and defends his principles.
This film doesn't want to tell us who was the good in the war or who made the worst thing, the only thing it wants to tell us is a story that take places and probably nobody knows. This is the reality of an ordinary man who had to fight against unusual, danger and difficult situations to stand up for what he believe and for what he thought was fair.
After the Second World War born the idea of rights and the idea that every human has to be treated in the same way, no matter where he comes, who is him or what he thinks. These ideas are very present in the way to do of the lawyer James Donovan. When all these principles started to have sense started the Cold War where there was the threat of another war even stronger with nuclear weapons.
Personally, I think it's a great film with amazing characters. When I saw the main character role in by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg as a director I was glad to see the film and it hasn't let me down. Only one advice, if you think you are going to watch an action movie you are the wrong principally because the Cold War was very different to those we were used to. It doesn't be a war of action, but a diplomatic war were the players were the spies and the information and not the armament.
